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Houston Rap x True Laurels: Urban Avant-Gardes Dec. 4

Writer Lance Scott Walker and photographer Pete Beste's nine-years-in-the-making book "Houston Rap" is a testament to the creativity, humanity, and artistic innovation of Houston, Texas' deeply influential rap scene which gave us innovator DJ Screw, spleen-venting poet Z-Ro, the Geto Boys, K-Rino, and many, many more (it is easy to imagine, a few years down the line, local photographer Rusty Burke publishing a book like this full of his ornate, off-the-cuff photos of Baltimore's D.I.Y. scene). True Laurels editor and City Paper contributor Lawrence Burney talks to Walker about "Houston Rap" and the "urban avant-garde." We're struck by the boldness and accuracy in declaring Houston hip-hop an "urban avant-garde," freeing that word from primarily white artists and making it clear that there is a direct through line from, say, the drone of La Monte Young and the slowed-down, slow-trickling screw music of H-town. Or that K-Rino constructs imagist street tales like a syrup-sipping Ezra Pound, or hey that recent Houston buzz artist Travis Scott constructs visceral noise rap that ain't all that different from the underground "noise" scene full of white boys dicking off on their laptops. 7:30 p.m., Red Emma's, 30 W. North Ave., (443) 602-7585, free. (Brandon Soderberg)

Houston Rap x True Laurels: Urban Avant-Gardes Dec. 4

Writer Lance Scott Walker and photographer Pete Beste's nine-years-in-the-making book "Houston Rap" is a testament to the creativity, humanity, and artistic innovation of Houston, Texas' deeply influential rap scene which gave us innovator DJ Screw, spleen-venting poet Z-Ro, the Geto Boys, K-Rino, and many, many more (it is easy to imagine, a few years down the line, local photographer Rusty Burke publishing a book like this full of his ornate, off-the-cuff photos of Baltimore's D.I.Y. scene). True Laurels editor and City Paper contributor Lawrence Burney talks to Walker about "Houston Rap" and the "urban avant-garde." We're struck by the boldness and accuracy in declaring Houston hip-hop an "urban avant-garde," freeing that word from primarily white artists and making it clear that there is a direct through line from, say, the drone of La Monte Young and the slowed-down, slow-trickling screw music of H-town. Or that K-Rino constructs imagist street tales like a syrup-sipping Ezra Pound, or hey that recent Houston buzz artist Travis Scott constructs visceral noise rap that ain't all that different from the underground "noise" scene full of white boys dicking off on their laptops. 7:30 p.m., Red Emma's, 30 W. North Ave., (443) 602-7585, free. (Brandon Soderberg)

Houston Rap x True Laurels: Urban Avant-Gardes Dec. 4

Writer Lance Scott Walker and photographer Pete Beste's nine-years-in-the-making book "Houston Rap" is a testament to the creativity, humanity, and artistic innovation of Houston, Texas' deeply influential rap scene which gave us innovator DJ Screw, spleen-venting poet Z-Ro, the Geto Boys, K-Rino, and many, many more (it is easy to imagine, a few years down the line, local photographer Rusty Burke publishing a book like this full of his ornate, off-the-cuff photos of Baltimore's D.I.Y. scene). True Laurels editor and City Paper contributor Lawrence Burney talks to Walker about "Houston Rap" and the "urban avant-garde." We're struck by the boldness and accuracy in declaring Houston hip-hop an "urban avant-garde," freeing that word from primarily white artists and making it clear that there is a direct through line from, say, the drone of La Monte Young and the slowed-down, slow-trickling screw music of H-town. Or that K-Rino constructs imagist street tales like a syrup-sipping Ezra Pound, or hey that recent Houston buzz artist Travis Scott constructs visceral noise rap that ain't all that different from the underground "noise" scene full of white boys dicking off on their laptops. 7:30 p.m., Red Emma's, 30 W. North Ave., (443) 602-7585, free. (Brandon Soderberg)